Ursula Haas

Ursula Haas (born April 2, 1943 in Aussig , Sudetenland ) is a German writer and librettist .

Life

Ursula Haas grew up in Düsseldorf and Bonn and studied history, German and pedagogy in Bonn and Freiburg . After her traineeship in Munich , however, she decided against school service, but gave private lessons and began to write. Her marriage to the surgeon Werner Haas gave birth to a daughter and a son. The couple divorced in the mid-1990s.

Ursula Haas lives and works in Munich as a freelance writer in the genres of poetry , novels , short stories , drama and essays . Her poems have been translated into numerous languages. In addition to her literary work, Ursula Haas writes libretti a. a. for the opera “Acquittal for Medea ” by Rolf Liebermann (first performance in 1995 in the Hamburg State Opera, first performance of the 2nd version in 2002 in the Bastille Opéra in Paris) and texts to accompany Mozart and Verdi operas in concert. She has received several prizes, such as the literary scholarship from the City of Munich for her poetry and, most recently, a scholarship from the Thyll-Dürr Foundation for the song cycle “The Albatross was mistaken”. The most recent publications of the writer and librettist include the volume of poetry “I crown you with snow” and the novel “Three Women”. Since 1995 Ursula Haas has also been working with the Swiss political artist Beat Toniolo on various cross-disciplinary art and culture projects.

Ursula Haas gives seminars in literary and creative writing in her own writing workshop, for example at the VHS Munich and Starnberg and at the Palacký University in Olomouc in the Czech Republic . At the same time she has been coaching young authors for several years.

Works

prose

• Klabund, Klabund or possibilities of dissolution. Haidhauser Werkstat (t) texte, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-9800-423-4-0 .
• Farewell stories. Stories. Limes, Wiesbaden 1984 ISBN 3-8090-2219-5 .
• Medea's acquittal. Novel. Limes, Wiesbaden, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-8090-2251-9 .
• Ursula Haas as the ghostwriter of the Parkinson's patient Luitgart Tremel: Overnight. Autobiography. Oppenber, Duisburg 2005.
• Three women. Novel. Kyrene, Innsbruck 2009, ISBN 978-3-900009-55-7 .
• Bosom friends. Stories about lust and breast. A1 Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3940666550 .
• Disheveled Days: A Year of Realities. edition bodoni 2020, ISBN 978-3947913091 .

Poems

• We sleep on our mouths. Poems about love. A1, Munich 1993, ISBN 978-3-927743-13-7 .
• Poems / Versuri. Poems in German and Romanian. Barbulescu, Munich 1998.
• Itimad. Joys and complaints. Ghazele . Nora hand press, Düsseldorf 2008.
• I crown you with snow. Poems and Ghazels. Sankt Michaelsbund, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-939905-38-7 .
• Word fish in the green aquarium. Poems and poetry. dition bodoni 2017, ISBN 978-3940781864 .

theatre

• The child, the dead and a dog. Play. First performance Tonhallenfabrik Schaffhausen / Switzerland 1995. New version of the play as a multimedia theater performance August 2003, Old Church of Boswil / Aargau / Switzerland.
• Secondhand or a poet wears lace. Theatrical farce in seven scenes. Stora, Munich 1996.
• Only home can be what I want to be. Staged performance for three actors and a cello. World premiere at Gundeldinger Kunsthalle, Basel 2001, director: Beat Toniolo.
• You are. Political texts (Ursula Haas) and video installations / music (Beat Toniolo). First performed at the 1st Word and Image Festival at the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen / Switzerland in 2003.
• Schiller and us, a modern collage. Play for the Schiller Year 2005. First performed at the 2nd Word and Image Festival at the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen / Switzerland.
• From Prometheus to Davos. A collage about Katia Mann for two actors and two musicians (violin, accordion), occasion: 100 years of Katia and Thomas Mann's stay in Davos. With original images and film clips from the lives of the men. Director: Beat Toniolo. World premiere March 27, 2012 in the Waldhotel Davos.
• Tell meets Wagner - encounters on Lake Lucerne , play with music (Betrand Roulet, Richard Wagner). Director: Meret Matter. Open-air performances at the Seelisberg-Rütli-Festival, Seelisberg. First performance on July 31, 2013

Musical theater

• Flutes of light. Libretto for Adriana Hölszky . Concert piece for soprano, wind instruments and percussion instruments. First performance in Heidelberg 1990, Festival of Women Composers.
• Medea monologue. Libretto for Rolf Liebermann . Concert for dramatic soprano, large orchestra, women's choir. First performance 1990, Musikhalle Hamburg, conductor: Gerd Albrecht , soprano: Françoise Pollet .
• Medea's acquittal. Libretto for Rolf Liebermann. 2-act opera. World premiere 1995, Hamburg State Opera, director: Ruth Berghaus , musical director: Gerd Albrecht, singers: Françoise Pollet, Aage Haugland , Jochen Kowalski .
• Boehlendorff. Libretto for Paul Engel . Chamber opera based on the story by Johannes Bobrowski . North Sea Organ Festival, Cuxhaven 1998.
• Medea. Libretto for Rolf Liebermann. 3-act opera (final version). First performance 2001, Stadttheater Bern, director: Philippe Godefroid / Françoise Terrone, musical direction: Daniel Klajner, singers: Joanna Porackova, Scott Wilde, Robert Odgen, Bern Symphony Orchestra , choir of the Stadttheater Bern.
• Medea. Libretto for Rolf Liebermann. First performance 2002. Opéra Bastille Paris, director: Jorge Lavelli, musical direction: Daniel Klajner, set design: Agostino Pace, costumes: Graciela Galán, singers: Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, Petri Lindroos, Lawrence Zazzo, choir and orchestra of the Opéra Nation de Paris.
• In between. Libretto for Karola Obermüller . Seven songs for soprano and ensemble. First performance on October 6, 2004 in the Orff Center in Munich with Petra Hoffmann , soprano, and the Ensemble avantage under the direction of Jeremias Schwarz.
• The albatross was wrong. Libretto for Paul Engel. Songs based on texts by Ursula Haas for baritone and piano trio, 2005. Composition: Paul Engel, Stadthalle Pullach, on February 1, 2007, Festsaal in Irsee, on February 3, 2007.
• Burning balm. Libretto for Widmar Hader . Epic ballad for medium voice and piano for the 600th anniversary of the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig in 2009. Laurentius, Frankfurt am Main 2009, LMV 143.

Awards and grants

• 1987: Grant from the Adalbert Stifter Verein
• 1993: Literature grant from the City of Munich
• 1994: Sudeten German Literature Prize
• 1999: Scholarship from the German-Italian Center at Villa Vigoni / Loveno di Menaggio / Lake Como
• 1999: Literature Prize of the Artists' Guild, Esslingen
• 2001: Foreningen Brechts Hus scholarship, Svendborg, Denmark
• 2004: Poetry Prize of the Esslingen Artists' Guild
• 2005: Working grant from the Swiss Dr. Robert and Lina Thyll-Dürr Foundation for the libretto work “Albatros” and for new literary works in the Casa Zia Lina / Elba
• 2006: Member of the Sudeten German Academy of Sciences and Arts
• 2010: Nikolaus Lenau Prize for Poetry of the International Lenau Society for the poetry book I crown you with snow

Press reviews

• "With 'Drei Frauen' (...) under this knot, psychological depths evoked in subtle, straightforward language soon open up, in which the three characters acquire an almost addictive plasticity." (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 1, 2009)
• "'Drei Frauen' narrates carefully and with devotion about the attempt to lead an artistically dense life without losing sight of life itself." (Tiroler Gegenwartsliteratur, 1168, 2009)
• “Medée contemporaine. … Liebermann et la librettiste Ursula Haas ont relu le mythe la magicienne infanticide à la lumière du XX e siècle. Ce n'est plus la belle Créüse, mais Créon, devenant l`amant de Jason, qui meurt dans la robe ensorelée, et Medée reste seule, bénéficiant d`un non-lieu, qui résume notre époque. " (Le Monde de la musique, February 2002, to the opera "Medea" in the Bastille Opéra, Paris)
• In a modern 'Medea', Jason feels free in the arms of a prince. ... the first exclusively homosexual opera. In an essay in the Bastill Opera's program… Dominique Fernandez, a novellist and musiccritic, says this is what distinguishes “Medea”. "Medea", he writes, "for the first time, two men sing of their love, without disguise or evasion". (New York Times, February 27, 2002)
• “'Medea' is a work of contrasts. The textbook by the German writer Ursula Haas, based on her novel 'acquittal for Medea', overturns the story that has been known since Euripides and Appolonius from Rhodes via Corneille, Grillparzer, Cherubini to Heiner Müller, because Jason leaves Medea for the young Apollo priest Kreon (not for Kreusa / Glauke). Haas blatantly emphasizes these contrasts of the prehistoric epoch of the plot: Occident-Orient, Dionysus-Apollo, 'civilized' (white Greek Argonauts), 'barbarians' (black Colchian women), patriarchy-matriarchy, heterosexuality-homosexuality. Ursula Haas built these opposites into the plot of the 75-minute opera with an unusually dense, multi-layered action. ” (Der Neue Merker, March 2002)

Web links

• Website by Ursula Haas

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of the 2nd Word and Image Festival
2. ↑ Recording of the premiere ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Scene from the first performance  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) nzz.ch
5. ↑ Scene from the world premiere  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.